Artifacts found in Egypt date back to Queen Cleopatra's era

Cairo, June 7 : A team of archaeologists has stumbled upon several Ptolemaic artifacts in Egypt, which date back to the reign of the famous Queen Cleopatra.

According to a report in Al-Ahram, the ancient objects were discovered by an Egyptian-Dominican Republic archaeological team working at Taposiris Magna, an area of archaeological importance west of Alexandria.

This area is also the site of a temple dedicated to the prosperity god Osiris, as well as a number of Graeco- Roman catacombs.

The team was searching the site in the hope of locating the tomb of Cleopatra VII and her lover Mark Anthony.

Excavation work started early last year in the area, as it was believed that the tragic couple had dug their tomb in an area some distance from Alexandria in order to be out of reach of their enemies.

Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and the head of the archeological mission, said that what fuelled the belief was that early historians were able to describe the tomb of Alexander the Great, but made no mention of a name or a description of a tomb either for Cleopatra or Mark Anthony.

The team unearthed an alabaster head of Cleopatra and a mask thought to be of Mark Anthony, as well as an alabaster statue of the goddess Aphrodite and a headless basalt statue of a royal Ptolemaic figure.

Inside the temple a number of 50-metre deep tunnels and corridors have been found leading to the temple's foundation stones, revealing that it was built during the reign of Ptolemy II (281-246 BC).

With them were found 20 bronze coins dating from the reign of Cleopatra.